EdTech: Why the project-based approach must change in order to contribute to system resilience.

This viewpoint article argues that there is an urgent need to reform the project-based EdTech approach in order to allow EdTech to contribute to the resilience of education systems in the aftermath of Covid-19. Looking at the contrast between the multiplication of EdTech pilot projects presented as a necessary step in a process that will eventually lead to scaled solutions and the lack of solutions that actually scale, the article highlights those long-standing issues perceived as most pressing by the actors involved in project-based EdTech initiatives. Their perspective and statements allow one to grasp how the EdTech project approach favors the setup of EdTech projects that are by design unscalable, driven by a utopian perception of scalability and instrumentalized in the name of a goal that is de facto only a branding. As a result, and despite the mobilization of tremendous resources, the EdTech project-based approach cannot be system-transformative.

Hold the phone! A cross-national analysis of Women's education, mobile phones, and HIV infections in low- and middle-income countries, 1990-2018.

Despite remarkable progress in the fight against HIV, the number of new infections remains unacceptably high, epidemics continue to grow in certain communities, and therefore AIDS continues to be one of the deadliest pandemics of our times. This study analyzes the rate of new HIV infections over almost 30 years in low- and middle-income countries. Previous research identifies two critical ways to address HIV prevention in developing countries: educating women and using mobile phones to improve health literacy and access to virtual healthcare. Our study bridges these literatures by evaluating how women's education and mobile technology work together to support the goals of HIV prevention in low- and middle-income countries. Using two-way panel fixed effects regression models of HIV incidence across 76 developing countries, we find that both increasing access to women's education and increasing access to mobile phones are associated with fewer HIV infections over time. Furthermore, we discover that women's education moderates the relationship between mobile phones and HIV. More specifically, mobile phones seem to be more beneficial for HIV prevention in cases where rates of formal schooling are low. However, at higher levels of women's education, the impact of mobile phones on new HIV infections is substantially reduced. Our findings have important policy implications for Information and Communications for Development (ICT4D) programs.

Factors influencing adoption of eHealth technologies in Ghana.

This study covers factors influencing the adoption of electronic health (eHealth) technologies in Ghana. The study was designed as a quantitative survey with questionnaire as the main method of data gathering. A total of 1640 questionnaires were administered to users and potential users of eHealth technologies in both public and private healthcare centres in Ghana. The study concludes that institutional characteristics and healthcare manager characteristics have a high influence on eHealth adoption. However, factors related to performance expectancy and effort expectancy only have low influence on the adoption of eHealth devices and systems. Accordingly, the study makes recommendations to policymakers for improving eHealth adoption in the health sector.

Human-centered design for global health equity.

As digital technologies play a growing role in healthcare, human-centered design is gaining traction in global health. Amid concern that this trend offers little more than buzzwords, our paper clarifies how human-centered design matters for global health equity. First, we contextualize how the design discipline differs from conventional approaches to research and innovation in global health, by emphasizing craft skills and iterative methods that reframe the relationship between design and implementation. Second, while there is no definitive agreement about what the 'human' part means, it often implies stakeholder participation, augmenting human skills, and attention to human values. Finally, we consider the practical relevance of human-centered design by reflecting on our experiences accompanying health workers through over seventy digital health initiatives. In light of this material, we describe human-centered design as a flexible yet disciplined approach to innovation that prioritizes people's needs and concrete experiences in the design of complex systems.

Use and Adaptation of Open Source Software for Capacity Building to Strengthen Health Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries.

Health research capacity strengthening is of importance to reach health goals. The ARCADE projects' aim was to strengthen health research across Africa and Asia using innovative educational technologies. In the four years of the EU funded projects, challenges also of technical nature were identified. This article reports on a study conducted within the ARCADE projects. The study focused on addressing challenges of video conferencing in resource constrained settings and was conducted using action research. As a result, a plugin for the open source video conferencing system minisip was implemented and evaluated. The study showed that both the audio and video streams could be improved by the introduced plugin, which addressed one technical challenge.

Telemedicine Networks of EHAS Foundation in Latin America.

Rural areas in developing countries are characterized by lack of resources, low population density, and scarcity of communications infrastructure. These circumstances make it difficult to provide appropriate health-care services. This paper explains research results achieved by Enlace Hispano Americano de Salud - Hispano American Health Link (EHAS) and how they have contributed to improve healthcare in isolated areas of developing countries through the use of information and communication technologies (ICT). As the first step, EHAS always collaborates with public health systems to identify its communication and information needs. Based on the analysis of needs, EHAS does research on appropriate technologies to provide communication in each context and on information systems suited to needs of health personnel. In parallel, EHAS has worked to provide applications that, making use of the communications services installed, could improve the health-care services in these remote areas. In this line, solutions to improve epidemiological surveillance or to provide telemedicine services (like a digital stethoscope or a tele-microscopy system) have been developed. EHAS has also performed several researches trying to ensure the sustainability of their solutions and has summarized them in a Management Framework for Sustainable e-Healthcare Provision. Finally, the effort to spread acquired knowledge has crystallized in a book that details all the technologies and procedures previously mentioned.